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The player acts ...

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With all this hubbub over used games and whether eliminating them would be good or bad for the overall industry, it was only a matter of time before SCIENCE was brought in to drop some truth bombs. Professors Masakazu Ishihara (New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business) and Andrew Ching (University of Toronto Rotman School of Management) have closely studied the Japanese gaming market, where pre-owned business is much more significant than it is in the US, and shared their findings in a paper published on December 15, 2012.

Their verdict? Not quite what you'd expect.

Ishihara and Ching found that, all else remaining equal, eliminating the used market would result in a 10% drop in publishers' profits per game. However, if average retail prices for software were to drop by a third across the board -- $40 down from $60 -- publishers could actually see a 19% rise in profits. Of course, the profit increase scenario would only work if publishers agree to a reduced MSRP, the likelihood of which is up for debate.

Ishihara and Ching's study demonstrates that there are many factors involved in used game sales and purchases. Consumers assign value to their individual software purchases, and some of that value is derived from their ability to resell it down the road. Reduced retail prices could feasibly counterbalance the loss of resales.

No matter how you look at it, this is a far more complex situation than anyone could have imagined.

[Peter Salinas -- one of the social scientists working at Nerd Kingdom -- hit up our Community Blogs recently to share a bit about the thought process behind their new game TUG. Pretty neat stuff! For more information on the game, check out the TUG Kickstarter, which passed its funding goal earlier this week.]

Hi! My name is Peter Salinas and I am a behavioral scientist that studies socio/cultural and psychological stuff in videogames. I have been a lurker of Dtoid and a member of the community for some time. What has always kept me here is the independence of the site and its ability to push harder each year, with more obstacles placed in its path, and still never sell out. For me, this is what is most important within the culture of the Dtoid community... well, that and all the dick and fart jokes. *high five*

I wanted to share with you a project I have been working on with a team of brilliant minds that could use your support -- or at least a moment of your attention. TUG is an open-world, sandbox role-playing fantasy game that is being developed on the foundation of human understanding and the motivation of dynamic play and interactions. To say our project has stirred up some questions would be a gross understatement, so I wanted to try to clear some things up in the hopes of garnering genuine support of what we are doing.

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